Q&A: Lenovo CEO on How It Plans to Grow With Smartphones

By

Juro Osawa

Aug 14, 2014 4:23 am ET

Last year, Lenovo Group became the world’s largest personal-computer maker, overtaking Hewlett-Packard. Now, the Chinese company is trying to repeat the success with smartphones, competing head-on with Samsung Electronics in emerging markets.

Lenovo said Thursday its net profit for the quarter through June rose 23% from a year earlier, while revenue increased 18%. Solid growth was thanks in part to a jump in smartphone sales in Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, according to the company.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Lenovo Chief Executive Yang Yuanqing talked about the company’s smartphone strategy and how Motorola will help it become more competitive. Below are edited excerpts of the interview.